Archive for October, 2009
Lounging at All City Coffee
All City Coffee has at least two locations in the Seattle area. Their flagship store is the one located in George town and the second store is located in downtown Seattle, in the Pioneer Square area. I had 'been to' the George town location a couple of years ago but I don't really remember much about it. And even after I had been to visited the Pioneer Square location on more than a few times, it took me a while to actually make the connection... more so after I was looking at my collection of coffee shop signs is when I remembered having taken a picture of this sign a while back. Being more familiar with the Pioneer Square location, I find the interior decor to be rather interesting in that in addition to the seating at the main level, there is a small fight of stairs that leads to am retro lounge type area which though unwalled gives users a some level of privacy, while at the same time will does not feel isolating from the rest of the room. Its a nice place to hang out if you wanted to be in the place [...]
illy Meets Vios
Illy Meets Vios, originally uploaded by andai. Ok, before I start, I must get this out…. Vios Cafe and Marketplace serves really great Greek food and they have awesome deserts that would certainly go really well with an excellent espresso. This place is probably my second or third most favorite Greek restaurant/café/whatever. What I also like about Vios Cafe is that it has a small marketplace very similar to that of Volunteer Park Café and Marketplace where you can by various Greek foodstuffs and ingredients you can take home to prepare your own meal. What I also find interesting about my dining experiences with Vios though is that all these years (well there not that many but enough anyway) that I have been going there with family and friends for dinner, it was only the last couple of times I was there, maybe three or four months back that I actually did start ordering lattes... I don't normally order lattes will dinner because I find them already filling, but I had to order at Vios because I was [...]
Local Color, Art, Coffee and More…
Local Color, originally uploaded by andai. Local Color is another of a myriad of coffee shops located in Pike Place Market. Though I have been there a couple of times, I don’t go there much, if at all, simply because this place is just not my style. This has nothing to do with the coffee being bad or anything like that. Rather it just the atmosphere and the décor of Local Color is not something that I feel. The other part of it is the fact that a lot of the people who hang out there seem to be the touristy kind and clearly being that Local Color is located in Pike Place Market, one would expect that a large number of the clientele would be tourists and visitors in bad shorts, ugly sandals and Hawaiian shirts. Places with these sorts of customers do not really appeal to me as a place that I personally want to hang out and chill. Now that being said, I think the biggest reason I don’t go there much is because Local Color serves Caffé Vita coffee beans. Now I know that for some, Caffé Vita is [...]
Caffé Fioré, the Organic Coffeehouse
Caffé Fioré Excellence, originally uploaded by andai. Ahh yes.. Caffé Fioré! This is actually one of my other favorite coffeehouses which in reality I don't get to visit much. And the reason for this being that they have three main locations, one in Ballard, one in Sunset Hill and the third on Queen Ann, none of which is close to the places I tend to frequent during my coffee craving periods. Now if they had a location in the Capital Hill area which would have been much more awesome. It also happens that whenever I tend to find myself in the Ballard or Queen Ann neighborhoods (I have no idea where Sunset Hill is), I am not necessarily in the mood for coffee, having satisfied my cravings earlier in the day. As much as I love coffee and I do drink a lot of it, I still have to be in the right mindset to get another cup especially when its in the afternoon or evening. What makes it even trickier now though is that Top Pot, another of my favorite coffee shops, or more accurately a donuts shop that sells [...]
Irwin's Bakery and Coffee House
Irwin's Bakery and Coffee House, originally uploaded by andai. A couple of years back, I used to pass by this coffee house in the Wallingford area every Sunday morning. However I had only been inside once or twice and quite frankly I didn't really remember much about the coffee. So a couple of months ago, I decided to drop in once again and this time pay attention. Well once Saturday afternoon, while I was out and about, I dropped in pretty late. This was just around 5:00 PM and they were to be closing soon. The barista who served me was a nice enough chap. Probably a high school senior I guessed based on his looks and the fact that as they were closing, a young couple, about to go on their prom date, stopped by to visit and show off their outfits. Maybe I should have paid attention but I don't remember much of what he told me about their coffee. I do know though that they serve Caffé, and he was trying to tell me all these good things about Caffé. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I was pretty [...]